Leaps and Bounds

Remember how I said a few posts back that Whitney was growing by leaps and bounds? Well, I wasn't kidding. Just a few days after my last post, she started pulling up all the way to standing. And, now she does it at the couch, in her bed, under the kitchen table on the chairs, even on random walls and doors. She hasn't quite figured out how to get down yet, though. So, much of my day consists of "rescue missions" to get her down from whatever interesting prop she pulled up on.

Amazingly enough, even with getting MORE teeth and mastering pulling up, Whitney started crawling on her hands and knees today! I'm really hoping that she keeps it up because I'd rather worry about dirty knees than dirty elbows, tummy, knees, and toes. (Hmm...that sounds almost like a primary song.)

On the tooth front, Whitney now has seven teeth--and judging from her behavior the last day or so, number 8 is cutting through as I type. Unfortunately, numbers 9 & 10 don't seem too far behind. Maybe they'll stall for a bit and give her a little break. At least she's not normally a fussy baby, right?

Last of all, this is something kind of funny, Whitney has discovered her finger-holders, (a.k.a. nostrils). I was holding Whitney the other day and someone was telling me how cute she is. Just as I turned to look at her, I saw her stick her finger up her nose. Yeah--real cute. She has her fingers in her nose all the time now. I hope she grows out of this phase relatively soon.

All Grown Up

Recently, Kallie and I have been having discussions about my wedding ring. She started to notice it a couple of weeks ago...and then started telling me that she wanted my ring. I told her that it was my wedding ring and I have it because I'm married to daddy. I explained that when she was a grown-up, she could get married and have her own special wedding ring.

Fast forward to today. She was helping, (read playing), while I was straightening in her room. Suddenly she announced, "Bye! See you later!" So, of course, I asked her where she was going, to which she replied, "To, bye-YOU." (BYU) I asked her why she was going to BYU and she told me, "Because I'm a grown up." Then, wanting to know whether I fell into the grown up category or not, I said, "How do you know you're a grown up, Kallie?" Her response: "Because I'm married." I asked who she was married to, and she said she didn't know. A few minutes later, she found some shiny object and told me it was her ring. She was just cracking me up. She really is 2 going on 20 these days!

YUM!

Yesterday, my parents babysat Kallie and Whitney while Ryan and I went to dinner for my birthday. Kallie LOVES having Maa-maw and Craa-paw, (her version of "Grandpa"), come to play with her. Around the time they were supposed to arrive, we started watching for their car. When they finally pulled up, I said, "Kallie, would you like to go outside to meet grandma and grandpa?" To which she replied, in her "mommy, that's silly" voice, "No...I don't want to EAT them!" I just wish I could bottle the best of 2-year old Kallie--she is so cute that I just want to keep these little bits forever!

Dancing Queen

This past week, during one of those "Hmm...the kids are bored and I don't feel like doing anything elaborate" moments, I stumbled upon Kallie's new favorite activity. I popped a CD in and when the music came on, we started dancing. Kallie really hasn't stopped since then!

Even this morning, as we were all baking my birthday cake together, (I was mostly supervising my kitchen-inexperienced husband), Ryan turned on some Sunday music. And, of course, Kallie started dancing. She even came and pulled her daddy onto the dance floor to get him moving, too. She spins, twists, jumps, and anything else she thinks her little body can do. It fascinates me to watch her move as she figures out just what her 2-year old bones and muscles are capable of doing. Now, if I could only get my old body to have the energy and capabilities of her newer model, I'd be set!

The Singing House

I have decided that we have a "singing house." No--our house doesn't burst into showtunes at any given moment. Instead, those of us living here seem to sing all the time. We sing before bed and we sing while we're playing, or cooking, or just doing whatever. Just yesterday, Whitney crawled over to the toy bins, pulled herself up so she was sitting on her knees and started singing to herself while she was playing with the toys. I loved it! And, it occurred to me that a 10-month old doesn't know to sing unless she's been taught. I love that she knows how to sing! Kallie loves to bring her copy of the Children's Songbook over, select a song, (she knows several of them by their pictures), and ask me to sing it to her. I recently realized that I actually know most of the songs in that book!

Also, a while back, I realized that Kallie has memorized every song we've sung during her bedtime routine. So, I decided that I would start singing one of the Articles of Faith songs every time she went to bed, (including naps). She loves this because she gets 3 songs, instead of the usual 2, and I love it because she's learing to sing them! Last week, I started with the 1st AoF and Kallie had it memorized within a day or two and sings it by herself now. She has even started asking for the Faith song because she likes to sing it!

I'm really grateful that we have a singing house. I'm grateful that my sweet husband isn't afraid to join in the fun as well. And, I'm really glad that my girls are learning to love music.

I've been tagged!

I think this is the first specific "Tag" I've received. So--here it is:

Places I have worked:
1. KBYU - Office Manager (and I was the Receptionist there during college)
2. Wencor West - Temped as an airplane parts seller
3. Southwest Ambulance - Human Resources Assistant
4. Apollo Group - Corporate Operator
5. BYU's Cougareat - I have no idea what my title was there...I mostly ran the register.

Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Ever After
2. Singin' in the Rain
3. Meet Me in St. Louis
4. While You Were Sleeping
5. October Sky

Places I have lived:
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. Mesa, AZ
3. Provo, UT
4. The Baltic States, (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia)
5. Orem, UT

Favorite TV Shows:
1. The Office
2. SuperNanny
3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
4. Planet Earth
5. Curious George (This one I love because it gives me sanity time!)

Places I've been:
1. Seattle, WA
2. Victoria, BC
3. Southern CA
4. Of course, The Baltics
5. Lander, WY (It's GORGEOUS there!)

Favorite Restaurants:
1. Cafe Rio
2. Pizza Factory (They have AMAZING breadsticks)
3. Wallaby's
4. Ottavios
5. Los Hermanos

Places I'd rather be:
1. Hawaii
2. Finished w/ Ryan's grad school
3. Seattle
4. The Baltics, (we're allowed to use an answer more than once, right? I've definitely worn that one out!)
5. Exploring London with Ryan

Weird things about me:
1. I LOVE college football--in fact, even if Ryan's not home, I'll turn on the TV on Saturdays and flip through the channels to find a good game.
2. I can touch my tongue to the tip of my nose.
3. I can tie cherry stems with my tongue.
4. I recently bought huge sets of markers and crayons for myself that my kids aren't allowed to touch. There's something about using beautifully sharp crayons and markers that haven't been smashed or the colors mixed.
5. It's really hard for people to surprise me because I pay attention and notice things that most people don't even think about. I really like surprises, though, so as I've gotten older, I've learned to purposely not pay attention so I can be surprised.

Two Funnies

OK--really, these probably aren't funny to anyone else but me. But, they always make me laugh--and I wanted to get them written down before I forget.

A few weeks ago, after I put Whitney to bed, I heard a strange noise coming from her room. Since we leave radio static playing while the girls sleep, I thought it might have something to do with that. I popped my head in to check--and realized that the sound had nothing to do with the radio. Whitney was snoring! This girl gets some great volume on her snores. At least I don't have to go check and see whether she's awake or not--I can hear her baby rumbles all through the house. Ryan and I laugh every time we hear it because it's so cute and funny to hear her snore!

Kallie is STILL totally in to Cars...she loves to watch it, play with her cars, etc., and along with this Ryan and I have taught her what the red, yellow, and green lights mean. So, today, as we were driving to the library, Kallie was telling me that we should stop or go, depending on the lights. Every time a light turned green after we had stopped at a red light, Kallie got very excited and said, "We're racing!" She doesn't get that you can just drive. Hopefully, she knows the difference between driving and racing by the time she's old enough to drive.

Random Facts

I thought I didn't have very many random facts about myself--but now that I've written a short list, I've got more than I thought! So, inspired by Ashby, Emily, Jessica, and Ashley, here are my random facts:

I was homeschooled from 5th thru 8th grades.

I minored in Business Management in college.

I was an Oil of Olay sample girl in a grocery store once. I hated it, left early, and never accepted the offer to do it again.

My favorite movie is "Ever After," but I haven't seen it in years. I can't watch any of my favorite movies more than once a year or so—I don’t want the favoritism to wear off.

I can touch my tongue to the tip of my nose.

I played violin in 4th and 5th grade. I stopped when my orchestra teacher started pushing me too hard.

My favorite game is Apples to Apples.

I have read only the first 2 Harry Potters and don’t plan to read any more any time soon.

I hate asparagus.

I ate wild boar and rose pudding (separately) on my mission and quite enjoyed them.

Random strangers will come up to me and spill their life stories—even ask for advice.

I took dance lessons for 9 years. The last 2 years, I focused on ballet.

When I was about 12, I secretly wanted to be a Mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club.

I would like to live in England for a few years.

I love college football…mostly BYU…but I just like watching the games.

I enjoy trying to interpret the meaning of dreams.

I want to take photography and flower arranging classes.

I hate folding laundry without watching TV or a movie. It’s just too mundane.

I don’t have a middle name.

I've never seen an episode of Survivor.

Whitney's Updates

It might be obvious by now that Whitney doesn't get a lot of press on this blog. That's probably because her sister is, at the moment, at lot more active and conversational. But, Whitney has made some progress lately, so I thought I'd post all about her for once.

Whitney is seriously one of the sweetest babies I have ever known. She is so happy all the time and very rarely fusses. She has learned, though, that when her sister does something she doesn't like, crying is an effective way to get mom's attention. There have been many times in the recent weeks that I've been been watching the girls as Kallie wonders, "What will happen if I hit my sister?" (Which she then does and covers her ears so she won't hear her cry.) Even if it wasn't a hard hit, Whitney will still make sure to get my attention by fussing or complaining.

She has also started giving everyone totally adorable cheesy grins. She scrunches her face up so you can barely see her eyes and smiles as big as she can, showing off her 6 tiny teeth, (with #7 and #8 coming in very soon). It's one of my favorite Whitney faces! If she can keep it up, she will be able to get a LOT out of her mom in coming years.

Whitney is also starting to pull up on things. She loves to climb on my kitchen step stool or the toy bins and lay on her tummy on the top. Today, I heard Kallie getting into the fridge. When I went in to see what was going on, Whitney had pulled herself to a standing position with the door closing on her. It was too cute! She's starting to try to pull up in her bed as well. She is 10 mos. now, so I guess it's time for that! (Although, she still refuses to crawl on all fours. I think she'll army crawl until she walks.)

She's just growing by leaps and bounds--and it's so fun to see her little personality develop more and more.

Kallie's Mishap

I don't know how it happened, but I really wish I'd been there to see it. Saturday morning, as Ryan and I were getting ready to go run errands, Kallie was running around from room to room trying to find something interesting, (interesting meaning that she's not supposed to), get into. Then I heard it. A muffled cry growing in volume the closer she got. Now, you have to understand that our apartment is not very big--so she wasn't even crying very loud in the first place. But, judging from the blood oozing from her bottom lip, I felt like her cries weren't doing the injury justice. Turns out she bit her lip on the inside AND on the bottom edge of the outside, too. The inside cuts are healing up very well--but the outside one still looks awful. There's a thick blackish scab on it and her lip is still a little bruised and swollen. Today, she told me that she fell into my nightstand drawers and that's how it happened. But, like I said, I wish I'd been there to see first-hand what actually caused such a ruckus on Saturday morning.

So, THAT's what uncles are for!

A couple of weeks ago, I bought Kallie a cheap little "magnet book," as she calls it. It's just a little folded piece of cardboard, (and apparently metal), that has a farm scene printed on the inside. It came with several little magnet animals and farm implements to place on the scene. We took it over to my mom's house, where Kallie proceeded to show her aunts and uncle her new toy. My brother, Jesse, took one look at the dog magnet and told Kallie it was a pooping dog. He's right--it looks like a VERY uncomfortable or unpleasantly surprised dog.
Well, fast forward to our adult session of Stake Conference tonight. I took the magnet book to keep Kallie busy during the 2-hour session. Toward the end of conference, we hand Kallie the toy. All of a sudden, she starts saying, in a louder-than-usual voice, "Pooping dog! Pooping dog!" Ryan and I were trying not to bust up laughing while instructing Kallie that she at least needed to whisper. She kept repeating it, decreasing her volume each time--until she was finally whispering--but it was incredibly funny! I have no idea if the people around us knew what she was saying, but I'm sure her Uncle Jesse would be proud!

A Mommy Must-Read

This morning, I received an e-mail from a sister I served with in Latvia. She related a story of a girls' night out where the topic, of course, turned to pregnancy and motherhood. (It's just that stage of life, right now!) She was reminded of an essay called, "Take, Eat" by Tessa Meyer Santiago, and sent the link. After reading it myself, I wish I could forward it to every mother in the world! Whether you have given birth or been blessed through adoption, this essay makes you realize all that you are truly giving for your child. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did! Here's the link:

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/byustudies&CISOPTR=2484&CISOSHOW=2468

Celebrity Morphs

OK--I was having way too much fun tonight with all of this MyHeritage.com stuff. Anyway--here are Ryan's and my celebrity morphs. What do you think?

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Who are they more like?

These are some pics of my girls from this past summer...it's fun to see that they're good blends of Ryan and me!

For those who say Kallie looks like me…you’re right—but not by much!


And, Whitney appears to be a perfect blend!

Mother Goose Avenue

Today I decided to fold laundry...which was all piled in my room...and I needed to entertain Kallie while I was getting it done. I've tried to do the "Kallie why don't you help mom with laundry" before and it just doesn't work for us yet. So, I pulled out the old standby: A movie! The only problem is that Ryan and I didn't have kids until DVDs were the thing...and we only have a VCR in our room. The choices were limited to a couple of Disney movies I bought while I was in college and the recording of a children's musical presentation I was in my senior year of high school. Knowing that Kallie has seen all of the age-appropriate Disney VHS movies we own, (several times, in fact), I decided to branch out and show her "Mother Goose Avenue." After all, it was based on nursery rhymes, has some cute music, and mommy was in the movie. It held her attention for a while and sent me down the road of reminiscing.

Mother Goose Avenue was written by an ASU music professor and given to my choir teacher to perform in local schools and for the music faculty at ASU. There were 6 of us in the show, Keith, (Little Boy Blue), Me, (Mary had a little lamb), Cheeri, (my lamb), Heather, (Little Bo Peep), James, (Humpty Dumpty), and Jenny, (Chicken Little). Watching the high school versions of us made me think about what we wanted out of life at that time--and how things turned out for each of us. I don't know what has happened to each person and I won't go into detail on the stories I do know because it would take far too much time. Watching the show also made me wonder why I was so self-conscious as a teenager. Why did I worry about what people thought or how fat I was? And, why was I chosen for that part? I know I didn't have the best voice and I certainly was NOT the best actress. But, I'm really grateful that I got to be part of it. It wasn't a huge deal, but was a bright spot in a year that was otherwise very difficult. It's amazing how life changes and how the little things, in the end, can mean more than you thought.

My Patience Meter

I have recerntly discovered that I have a Patience Meter. There are situations that quickly crank it up to the red zone, like having to tell my 2-year old to stay out of the street for the 15th time or having to put her in time out for the 6th time in 10 minutes. But, there are also situations that diffuse the meter to the green level--time works really well for this.

Take today, for example...I took the girls out to run errands this afternoon. We first went to the naturopath's office to pick up more supplements. Kallie was all over the place--even after I asked her to sit in a chair--and my patience meter started to climb. When we left the office, Kallie decided that she didn't want to come get in the car, but instead wanted to stand by a tree and listen for the ducks that she saw last time we were there. By the time we drove away, the meter was right in the middle of yellow.

After the 7-minute drive to Costco, the meter was comfortably back in the green zone. And, I have to say, both of my girls did really well while we shopped. Kallie did, however, ask for her "picture" about 200 times. (She has been carrying around a tiny picture of her cousins all day today.) She thought she lost the picture, even though I assured her it was probably in the car. By the time we finished shopping, my patience meter was hovering between green and yellow.

I got both girls strapped into their car seats and hopped in the front seat just in time for Kallie to ask about her picture for the 201st time. I glanced to the back seat and saw that it had fallen in the space between car seats...and knowing that my patience meter was only going to crank up if I had to listen to the question 500 more times, I hopped out, grabbed the picture, and gave it to Kallie. As we drove off, she did the smartest thing she could have ever done...she said, "Thanks, mommy! You're the BEST!" And, she repeated, "You're the BEST!" about 60 times.

Now, I realize that she probably doesn't really know what that means. But, that cranked my patience meter down to the bottom of the green. Even hauling two kids in a double stroller though the Columbus Sale at Joann's could not crank up my patience meter after that. Even having to put her in time out literally 4 times within 15 minutes when we got home couldn't make it budge. It's amazing what a few simple words from a 2-year old can do for a mom!

St. George Marathon

First of all, every time we go on vacation, I swear I'm never going to do it again...and then a few months later, I'm ready for a break and do everything in my power to go somewhere. This time was no different.

The trip down there was great--except somehow I managed to get a cold the day before. So, that part wasn't great. But the girls were really good and we didn't have to stop once. We went right to the convention center and got Ryan registered for the race and then headed back to my Grandma's house in Hurricane.

After a not-very-restful sleep, Ryan got up at 4 a.m. to get to the bus on time. The girls were nice to me and slept until almost 8 a.m.! (That was really nice, since I didn't sleep well either and woke up several times that night.) We tried to watch conference--but let's be honest--when you're in a place your kids don't know and there are so many new things to explore, you can't concentrate on anything but keeping them from destroying everything. So, I don't remember much of conference.

I am so incredibly proud of my husband! His goal was to complete St. George in a shorter time than he completed SLC. And, he did it! He came in at 4:59:44...which was a 35 minute improvement over SLC. I was so thrilled for him! And, he's been sore, but not nearly as wiped out as he was after his first marathon. Before the maration, he said he planned to take next season off--but I suppose we'll see what happens in a few months...

The rest of the weekend was very uneventful--except as we were packing to leave. Somehow, it always seems that while we're trying to pack the car, both my girls absolutely cannot live without both parents paying very close attention to them. It makes things very chaotic and hectic...so that's when the "I am NEVER doing this again!" comes into play every single time. But, we got the car packed and I survived.

I really did not get to hear conference at all. I did manage to hear a few talks while we drove on Sunday, but I definitely feel like I missed out on it. I'm really glad they will have the talks online and I look forward to listening to them in the next few weeks and then reading them.

It was really nice to stay with my grandparents. They were very accomodating and didn't seem to mind the craziness of the kids--so that made the stay really great. It was a pretty good weekend...and I'm just really proud of my wonderful husband!

It never works

Today, I told myself that I was going to go to bed early. Nine o'clock sounded great to me. As soon as the girls went to bed, (at 8), I decided to work on a little project for a few minutes, which I did...then I found the October Ensign. After reading for about 30 minutes, I decided that I didn't want to get ready for bed *quite* yet and went blog hopping. Before I knew it, almost an hour had passed. I found several blogs of people I went to high school with--which was really a lot of fun for me. BUT--this is why going to bed early never works. I think that I'm going to take 5-10 minutes for something and end up taking at least an hour. And, to make it worse...I'm now sitting here typing on my own blog! At least I know this really will take about 5 minutes. Maybe tomorrow I'll make it to bed early.